Bonnie Orr

By Bonnie OrrWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener The United States has had all types of migrants since the first European settlements. Dandelions and angle worms were introduced, as well as many invasive and noxious weeds and insect pests. In the…

By Bonnie OrrWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener Gardening magazines are filled with pictures of lush containers lining a walkway or along the sides of a deck. Containers are lovely and a great gardening option for people who do not have…

By Bonnie OrrWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener It is spring, the perfect time to plant trees and shrubs. The Greater Wenatchee Arbor Day Association has selected trees and shrubs that will thrive in this area and will offer them to…

By Bonnie OrrWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener It is time to apply pre-emergent herbicides. Pre-emergents are products that are spread on the lawn to prevent germinating seeds from growing. In lawns, crabgrass is one of the primary targets. The timing…

By Bonnie OrrWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener “Well, it looked like a good place to put that plant …” When plants fail to thrive, some gardeners claim they must have a “brown thumb.” But that is not necessarily true. Deciding…

By Bonnie OrrWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener Roses are the most popular garden flower. They have been giving pleasure for thousands of years. And lucky for us, we live in one of the best places in the world to grow…

By Bonnie OrrWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener What a wonderful, snowy winter. It looks like the plants are tucked in and protected from the cold. They are dormant. So are all the diseases and insects that prey on the fruit…

By Bonnie OrrWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener I grew up without a formal yard. Consisting of native grasses and wildflowers, the “lawn” near the creek was mown once a year in June when we played croquet during a birthday party.…

By Bonnie OrrWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener De-icers are essential products for airplanes, bridges and highways. They provide a level of safety during the winter. De-icers used by homeowners should be selected carefully. There are several types to choose from:…

By Bonnie OrrWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener Gardeners have been thinking and mulling over and talking about how much they have noticed the changes in our growing season. Keeping a gardening journal is one way of noting changes in nighttime…

By Bonnie OrrWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener Many gardeners in North Central Washington have been talking about turf problems and how their lawns are weedier than ever before. The weed culprits seem to be spotted spurge, crab grass, Oxalis and…

By Bonnie OrrWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener The autumn days are noticeably cooler and have fewer hours of light. These are the signals to trees to prepare for dormancy, so they get ready to shed their leaves. Not only do…

By Bonnie OrrWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener WENATCHEE — Composting is an essential, environmentally important process that all homeowners could practice. It is a means to lessen the need for larger and more costly wastewater treatment plants that process the…

By Bonnie OrrWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener Bugs, beetles, bees and lots of fun are in store for visitors at WSU Chelan-Douglas Master Gardeners’ free family event from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Sept. 16. It takes place at…

By Bonnie OrrWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener How is your garden growing? Most people are pleased with the weather this year, aside from last week’s heat blast. Lots of beautiful flowers and abundant veggies have earned bragging rights. We are…

By Bonnie OrrWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener Nothing is more disappointing than going to the garden and seeing that your winter squash plant has wilted and is mostly dead. Or even worse, the first eagerly anticipated ripe tomato has a…

By Bonnie OrrWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener In November, we had freezing weather before many plants had reached dormancy. Roses were particularly damaged. Grafted roses seemed to suffer more damage than the roses grown on their own roots. Grafted roses,…

By Bonnie OrrWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener You intended to scrape out those little weeds when they first appeared at the end of May. Now these flowering weeds are setting seeds. Often, they thrive in areas of low soil fertility…

By Bonnie OrrWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener I am going to suggest an alternative to till gardening based on the science of soil. Using a garden tiller may seem like easy work, but in the long run it causes much…

By Bonnie OrrWSU Chelan/Douglas County Master Gardener The annual Greater Wenatchee Arbor Day Association’s celebration is April 22, with trees and shrubs available at four area sites. Distribution is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Pybus Public Market in…

For the last eight years, we have experienced an increasing number of days higher than 86 degrees. Do you remember the “heat dome?” That period of 100-plus weather lasted nearly a week in June 2021. Vast swaths of turf burned out. And because the grass leaves were dead, the soil was exposed to light. The various weed seeds hidden in the top few inches of soil germinated. Some people noticed splotches of weeds growing in their turf by late summer 2021.

These three weeds are common bad guys: Common purslane, Spotted spurge/prostrate spurge, Oxalis or woodsorrel

What a wonderful, snowy winter. It sometimes looks like the plants are tucked in and protected from the cold. They are dormant. So are all the diseases and insects that prey on the fruit trees.

It is more than magic watching a seed develop into a plant. It is the delightful introduction to life we can share with children, and all of us with green thumbs thrill to the germination of seeds and the promises they hold.

Given that December is the darkest time of the year with a little more than eight hours of sunlight, who cannot appreciate the delight of flowering plants? It is satisfying to give and to receive plants this month, but sometimes cut flowers are a wise choice. Not all plants are equally welcome because they can cause problems.

A perfect gift for a gardening friend is a soil test. Commercial soil tests indicate various levels of basic nutrients in the soil. Mostly, they calibrate the fertility of the soil to guide the gardener’s use of fertilizers. The tests, among other features, indicate the level of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Some tests also indicate pH and micro-nutrients such as calcium or magnesium or boron. Gardeners often find that their soil actually has enough of the major nutrients and more bags of fertilizer do not have to be purchased.

Fall is one of the best times to enhance your landscape with trees and shrubs. The temperatures are cooler, so plants can put more energy into creating roots

Yes, everything is still growing, and the garden is producing bountiful crops. All our work has paid off. But it is not good form to be patting yourself on the back. It is time to assess the landscape. Have you been taking pictures or videos all season to document what is working in the landscape and what may need a bit more attention?

It is nearly Labor Day, which means it’s time for the county fairs and time to organize our fall garden tasks. We think about planting trees and shrubs in the fall and harvesting our garden’s bounty. One of the tasks we often do not think about in the fall is weeding because we are just so tired of dealing with weeds and wish they would go away.